Reinhold Niebuhr Timeline: Attends World Council of Churches commission in Amsterdam

In the summer of 1948, Niebuhr delivers the main conference address in which he goes toe-to-toe with Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who says that the church's role is repentance and not social reconstruction. Niebuhr states, "It is true repentance is always required even as evil always flourishes. But it is wrong to preach this Gospel sub specie aeternitatis as if there were no history with its time and seasons."

Audio used with permission of Union Theological Seminary and the estate of Reinhold Niebuhr